[grohlisagod]

Originally Posted by Necronomicon

I felt quite let down by the His Dark Materials trilogy. I liked Northern Lights, without thinking it was anything spectacular, but the other two were just quite poor I thought.

The first one is the best one alright. I liked The Subtle Knife as well but The Amber Spyglass gets worse and worse the more of it you read.

[Bill Shock]

Anything and everything by Roddy "smug****" Doyle.

[PurpleBee]

Originally Posted by Bill Shock

Anything and everything by Roddy "smug****" Doyle.

The Van was one of the funniest things I ever read but then the whole Black Dog St Patrick's Day parade thing I found nauseating so I'm inclined to agree with you.

[Forest Demon]

The Da Vinci Code

[Giselle]

Originally Posted by Forest Demon

The Da Vinci Code

I can't think of anyone who rated that highly tbh.

[Aenaes]

Originally Posted by MagicMarker

I'm reading 'The Sun Also Rises' by Hemingway and I am deeply disappointed. I am over halfway through and I really dislike his style of writing, I don't think I will finish tbh, I just don't care for it.

Please don't let it put you off Hemingway altogether. "The Old Man And The Sea" is fantastic.

[ThirdMan]

Samuel Beckett's Molloy. Parts of the first monologue are laugh out loud funny, and I honestly felt I was reading something truly different. But it is almost entirely void of paragraphs, and has sentences that go on for pages (seriously!). Meaning I was very quickly out of my comfort zone. I'm sure if you 'understand' literature you could wax on about what it achieves, what it represents, etc. But for someone looking for an introduction to his work it's probably best to start with his plays.

[hidinginthebush]

When I opened this thread I was terrified I'd be shot for mentioning slaughterhouse 5 and catch: 22, good to see I'm not alone!
I recently went back to reread lotr, it kinda made me sad to see how much I've grown to dislike a book I used to love.

[ViveLaVie]

The Catcher in the Rye. I didn't dislike it, I was just a bit underwhelmed. Bit 'meh'.

[Monkeybonkers]

I think it's highly rated by some but I found 'Moby Dick' very boring indeed. I just could not get in to it at all. Long, meandering explanations of whales and the like just did not do it for me. Where was the battle of wills between Ahab and MD that I had heard so much about? Answer: There was none that I could see. One chapter interested me in the whole book, the final one, and I think that was because I was so happy to know that it was finally ending after spending a long time struggling through it.

[Aenaes]

"Of Mice And Men", I thought was overrated. It's quite a good story but just not a classic, which seems to be the consensus.

I've always been skeptical of "great" American authors anyway. I seem to think America being the new kid on the block regarding world culture, it wanted to lay claim to having great artists.

[biohaiid]

The Great Gatsby.
The biggest load of crap I have read, tbh.

[wilkie2006]

Originally Posted by Monkeybonkers

The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman/The Brother Flann O Brien
At Swim-Two-Birds Flann O Brien


Pure shi*e!!

Absolute sacrilege!! O Brien is amazing!!!!

Originally Posted by Out Of The Night

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. All of Jane Austen's work. Jodi Picoult. Anita Shreve. Ayn Rand.

Did you finish Cloud Atlas? I agree that it's hard to get into but it just gets better and better and better. Never have I read a more appropriate blurb:

"David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end.' (AS Byatt, Guardian )"

[Mahna Mahna]

I really don't like Nick Hornby, all his characters are so unlikeable, but I have only read High Fidelity, How to be Good and A Long Way Down.
Everyone talks about how hilarious he is but I just don't see it, there are a few good one liners but he really does not impress me.

[Monkeybonkers]

Originally Posted by wilkie2006

Absolute sacrilege!! O Brien is amazing!!!!

So everyone keeps telling me. I've read 'At Swim-Two-Birds' and 'The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman/The Brother' and I hated both of them. Maybe I'm missing something so I've decided to give the honourable gentleman one more go with 'The Third Policeman' and if that doesn't do it then I'm afraid I'll forever be on the outside looking in at all the O Brien fans. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the one to open my eyes to his supposed brilliance.

Sorry this is a bit OT but what is the winking eye in your post supposed to signify? After the mis-spelling of the word 'lose' as 'loose', for me this has to be the most annoying thing on internet forums.

Edit: Not having a go at you particularly wilkie, I just find the use of that particular smilie very annoying and was wondering what was your purpose in using it? What are you trying to convey by putting it in your post?